Annual Editions: Management 05/06

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This updated thirteenth edition of public press articles explores the dynamics of management in today's business environment. This title is supported by the student website, www.dushkin.com/online, providing study support and tools and links to related websites.

During the boom times of the 1990s, managers were encouraged to be more open. Now, with business being more difficult than in the past, managers need to take a more guarded, tougher approach.

Part C. The Environment

4. Managing In A Complex World, Sir John Bond, Vital Speeches of the Day,

Change is something that effects all organizations, not only in the U.S. but in Europe and the rest of the world. How these large corporations deal with changing conditions is the subject of this First Roberts Lecture at the University of Sheffield.

During the past several years, American business has suffered a number of blows affecting the confidence that people have in it. Murray Weidenbaum has some ideas on what can be done to help restore people’s faith.

Part C. Strategic Analysis

In an increasingly competitive environment, knowledge management is the basis for sustaining and renewing the competitive advantages of the organization.

9. Six Priorities That Make a Great Strategic Decision, Mary Burner Lippitt, Journal of Business Strategy, January/February 2003

In this article by Mary Burner Lippitt, read about the six priorities for strategic thinking: (1) state-of-the-art products/services; (2) market share; (3) building systems to maintain high performance; (4) process improvement; (5) developing a competent workforce; and (6) long-term positioning.

10. Crisis in Corporate America: The Role of Strategy, Frederick Hansen and Michele Smith, Business Horizons, January/February 2003

It is obvious that many of the recent scandals that have come to light in corporate America are the result of accounting fraud. But, strategic thinking also played a major role in these incidents. This article provides a means to address these issues.

UNIT 3. Organizing

Part A. Management Classic

Time and motion studies were among the earliest results of Frederick W. Taylor’s work. In this selection, two of the pioneers in these studies discuss the ideas upon which time and motion studies are based.

Part B. Elements of Organization

12. Beyond Empowerment: Building a Company of Citizens, Brook Manville and Josiah Ober, Harvard Business Review, January 2003

There are alternative forms of organization to the traditional bureaucratic forms typically found in many companies. Some of them are as old as Western civilization itself.

Part C. Designing and Changing the Organization

13. The Dark Side of Change, G. Neil Karn and Donna S. Highfill, Across the Board, March/April 2004

Sometimes when a new manager comes on board, he or she has a need to put their stamp on the organization. They often do that by instituting unnecessary change.

Change is the only constant. Those organizations that are able to change are the ones that are going to be successful. Mavericks are often the key to change and organizations must learn to embrace them.

Part D. Communication

Information Technology is going to change the way the whole world communicates in the future. It has only recently started to make changes in the developed world, but once the rest of the world catches up, it will be difficult to have any control over it.

UNIT 5. Controlling

Part A. Management Classic

In this classic article, Douglas McGregor, who also wrote about the X and Y theories of management, looks at how performance appraisals can be effectively used to help management and to control the enterprise.

Part B. Financial Control

What happens when a firm fails, not slowly and gradually, but suddenly, when nobody is expecting it? To avoid this kind of financial catastrophe, Edward Robins suggests incorporating management and analytic capabilities to assess risk.

Part D. Total Quality Management

The U.S. Postal Service is trying to improve its service while at the same time keeping costs under control. One of the techniques they are using is the Mail Preparation Total Quality Management (MPTQM) program.

UNIT 6. Staffing and Human Resources

Part A. Management Classic

This is the article, first published in 1989, that started all the discussion of the “Mommy Track” and the “Daddy Track” for employees.

Part B. Developing Human Resources

24. Who Are You Really Hiring?, Shari Caudron, Workforce, November 2002

Background and reference checks are an important part of the hiring process. Not doing an adequate job of checking a potential employee’s references can lead to many problems down the road that could have been prevented.

There has been a great deal of discussion of the outsourcing of jobs to India and China as well as to other countries in the developing world. But there is a downside that may be coming to this activity if you are not careful!

Part C. Maintaining an Effective Workforce

According to a recent UN study among industrialized countries, only the Koreans and the Czechs put in more time on the job than Americans. In fact, the U.S. is the only developed country where the number of hours on the job has actually increased since 1990. This could result, for some, in what the Japanese have named “Karoshi” or “Death-by-overwork!”

UNIT 7. Perspectives and Trends

Part A. Management Classic

27. The Discipline of Innovation, Peter F. Drucker, Harvard Business Review, August 2002

Peter Drucker identifies several kinds of opportunities that can be used to help develop innovation in this classic article from the Harvard Business Review.

Part B. The Multinational Corporation

28. American Corporations: The New Sovereigns, Lawrence E. Mitchell, The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 18, 2002

Corporations are growing in power and there doesn’t seem to be any real accountability for them. This would seem to be true on both the international and domestic levels.

Corporations need to balance global consistency with local needs and the necessity to be able to respond to those needs. A company-wide global mind-set is necessary to do this successfully.

Part C. Corporate Culture

30. For New “Old Boys” Only, Stewart Crainer and Des Dearlove, Across the Board, November/December 2002

The gentlemen’s club, once the symbol of the white male establishment, is now becoming the model of the new business world where everything is done based on an informal network of contacts. But, instead of being exclusionary, these new networks are inclusionary.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has mandated a stronger role for outside directors on the boards of corporations. This is particularly true in the financial and executive compensation area of the board’s responsibility.

33. Who Cares Wins, Stephen Cook, Management Today, January 2003

Organizations that take an active role in addressing their corporate social responsibility tend to be more profitable. Investors, customers, and other stakeholders are beginning to recognize this, and those companies are reaping the benefits.

Part E. Small Business and Entrepreneurship

34. Determining the Strategies and Tactics of Ownership Succession, James Ahern, National Underwriter Life and Health, February 10, 2003

Every entrepreneur will eventually have to make a plan for getting out of the business. Retirement includes many options, and every entrepreneur should consider transition plan options from the beginning.

Part F. The War on Terror

35. Corporate Responsibility and the War on Terrorism, Thomas A. Hemphill, Business Horizons, May/June 2003

What should American corporations do about the War on Terror? American firms have alliances with foreign companies involved with countries supporting terrorism and/or WMD’s. Should boards of directors of American firms end these relationships?